FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

~ The salt spray of the ocean made it more difficult to make out the flags that the transport ship was flying, but it was a triffling matter. She was obviously lightly loaded by the way she rode the waves, which meant she carried high density wealth, which is to say treasure, with which to buy the materials of war. The pig kept his eyes on their prize, as he took a personal assessment of prices paid, debts owed, bargains struck, and matters unsettled in his long life.

~ He could hear the screams and commands around him, bits of the pirate ship's woodwork bursting into small explosions of splinters as the defensive volley pelted the ship. He ignored the distractions; none of this was his focus. He never wished to forget what he fought, killed, and plundered for. The night his wife began to cough up blood, the only answer found with the physician was a sorrowful expression to mirror his own desperation and rage. The pirate ship shuddered, the boarding ramp locking into position. It wouldn't be long before his job began. A round pierced his shoulder, a clean wound through and through. He would ignore it, for now. It was a crisp morning when he and his wife, her near death, stumbled into the dragon's foyer. The dragon offered a simple exchange. A cure for his wife, for a single magic ring. A magic ring of a particular spell, which hadn't yet been forged in this realm.

~ The dragon sorcerer had placed his wife into some sort of sleep; he had until the end of his days to return with payment and his wife would be as though she had been cured on arrival. It would take years before he saw even the first ring from the lands of magic; his career in the Imperial Navy provided him the slow and steady path towards his goal. And for more years than he wished to count, he inspected every bit of cargo, contraband, and merchant's wares for such a ring as the dragon coveted. Aboard the deck of the pirate ship, his feet had begun to fall into the regular pattern; he was running aboard the ship of terrified merchants. One of them swore at him in what he presumed was profanity, with a language he hadn't yet learned.

~ His search had consumed his remaining days and years, and found him in command his own ship by the time old age began to take him. And still his wife and the dragon waited on his luck; he needed more time. He sold his ship's maps, falsified orders, and took his ship to a darkened port where heard of promises whispered. A gryphon waited for him there, as one waited for him aboard the merchant ship shortly. His blade met flesh, and found himself screaming out an old tune of the language of his youth with a tongue unknown to his pirate fellows. "Gaudeamus igitur. Iuvenes dum sumus. Post iucundam iuventutem. Post molestam senectutem...", the hog belted out as he worked his way through the crowd, until the breath of his song left with the arrival of a bullet deep into his chest.

~ The world seemed to shudder around him, his heart let out a heavy thump. The screams and chaos of the raid around him seemed to slow, to dim. Thump. He felt weak, he felt cold. Thump. He was alone in the darkness, in the void between life and death. His soul was dressed plainly, in a tunic. A gryphon smiled to him, "You remember what I am owed, yes?" He could never understand how a beak could smile, and he never saw such a thing in the realm of the living. It was a reminder of where he really was. He replied politely, "Yes. Ma'am."

~ The gryphon laughed. "No need to be so formal. So, are you done with it, yet?" Her grin seemed almost menacing, curving down to a point. The void, cold and dark and unending was becoming uncomfortably warm. He replied the well practiced response, "No, ma'am." The void was hot and smothering for a moment, before the fires of youth rose in his chest. His breath overflowing, he gasped his way back up onto his feet. He spun about in place, looking for whoever it was that deigned to shoot him; he was too busy for these interruptions. Spying the crow in the rigging frantically reloading her rifle, the pirate pig strode across the deck amongst the dance of many others busy with their own matters at hand, blade, and tears.